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Horse Bowl, Hippology, & Horse Communications

• Saturday, March 8, 2025, 8:00 AM - 4:30 PM

4-H Horse Bowl and Hippology is scheduled for Saturday, March 8th, 2025 at the Boquet Valley Central School Lakeside Campus (formerly known as Westport Central School) located at 25 Sisco Street, Westport, NY 12993 and is open to all Clinton, Franklin, Essex, Washington, and Warren County 4-H members. Registration is required by February 28th, 2025.

Please remember if you are participating in a Communications project as well to please email Jessica at jms943@cornell.edu, this will be how you register for Communications! Let her know your Communications type and the title!

If you need directions to the BVCS-Lakeview Campus, please contact the 4-H office.

This is one of the pointed events for the Clinton and Essex County 4-H Horse Program. Horse Bowl and Hippology participants will receive one point for each event participated in. You can also earn a point for each event you volunteer at (maximum 2 horse points for the day). Please be sure to sign in and out in order to receive full points for your participation.

Schedule

Horse Communications will begin at 8:00AM, registration will start at 8:30AM and Horse Bowl and Hippology will begin at 9:00AM this year. We are hoping the day will be done between 3-4PM. We are going to keep things moving as much as possible, but the day may run a bit longer than expected. Please plan on bringing something to do during the down times (study questions, quiet games, etc). Please also bring a pen/pencil and a clipboard for the hippology contest.

There will be a lunch break starting approximately at noon that will last about a half hour. We encourage you to bring a lunch and a drink. Also, please bring a snack to share to help everyone reenergize their brains after working them.

Team Registration

Pre-registration helps us conduct a more organized 4-H Horse Bowl & Hippology Program. Clubs are encouraged to form teams in advance. Clubs may form both junior (aged 9-13) and senior (aged 14 and over) teams. Clubs can also have novice teams of either age group (senior and junior novices will play in different divisions). A novice is a 4-Her who hasn’t participated in a county horse bowl or hippology event. If your club does not have a complete team, teams will be formed based on pre-registrations. There will be special interactive Horse Bowl & Hippology activities for Cloverbuds.

Horse Bowl teams have 4 members with up to 2 alternates. Hippology teams have 4 members with one alternate. Each team (Horse Bowl and Hippology) will need an adult coach. This person will help make sure their team makes it to matches on time. Horse Bowl coaches will sign off on score sheets.

To register, please complete the form below (click on the Register link) for each team your club will be sending.

Note: If possible, if someone from your club cancels or is unable to attend after you have submitted registration forms, please let us know prior to the event so we can adjust teams as necessary.

Hippology Sections

Hippology will consist of three stations, a written exam, team problem, and judging. The written exam will be a condensed version of what is given at the state level. With the team problem, teams are given a scenario and time to solve the problem together. Then they present their answer to a judge. In the judging section, members will judge classes from pictures or slides of horses. We are trying to have the hippology contest be as close to the state version as we can. Juniors and seniors will be required to answer a team problem and do the judging section, these scores will count as part of their placing. Novices are invited to try the team problem and judging if they would like.

Getting Ready

Junior level questions are designed for 4-H’ers aged 9-13; senior level questions are for 4-H’ers aged 14 and over. The questions you might already have are samples of questions which have been used for county 4-H Horse Bowl in previous years. These questions are not the actual questions that will be used for this event. If you need copies of sample Horse Bowl questions, contact the Extension Office.

Rules

The rules for are available online at 2025 NYS Horse Educational Events Rulebook

The Role of Coaches

We ask that each team have an adult coach to help make sure the team is organized and arrives to matches on time, etc. There will be a coach's orientation while the 4-Hers are participating in the judging contest. This orientation will review the role of coaches, such as review of relevant rules and how to make a protest.

Volunteer Roles

Teen and adult helpers are needed for this event. Each team needs to bring at least one teen or adult volunteer to help support the day’s event. We will do our best to make sure volunteers can watch their 4-Her participate in the event if they like. Volunteers should plan on arriving at 8 AM for a brief orientation/how-to session. Thank you!

Here is a list of volunteer roles we have.

• Sign-in Desk Coordinators: We need at least three people to help 4-Hers and their families check in as they arrive. These volunteers will check in teams and verify everyone is there then let 4-H Staff know so teams can be readjusted if necessary. They will make sure everyone signs in and hand out nametags, programs, hippology score sheets, and other necessary information.
• Master Score Room Scorekeeper: We need at least one person to help in master score room throughout the day. This person can be an adult or senior 4-Her that is not directly involved in any competition. This master score room scorekeeper will help correct Hippology score sheets including written exam and check math on horse bowl score sheets.
• Runners: Runners will bring horse bowl and/or hippology score sheets to the master scorekeeper. They will also help find horse bowl teams to make sure the team is ready to play on schedule. Youth younger than 13 can help in this role with the help of an adult.
• Jr/Sr Horse Bowl Scorekeepers: Scorekeepers are needed in each of the horse bowl rooms (a total of at least 6 are needed).
• Novice Horse Bowl Scorekeeper: We also need one person to keep score on the white board for the Novice Horse Bowl room.
• Horse Bowl Timekeeper: We need 3 people (1 per Horse Bowl room) to run the buzzers in each room.

Awards

Awards will be given out at the end of the day. Everyone is encouraged to attend. Awards will be given for individual county placings and overall regional results. Participants who’ve earned their way to the State competition will be informed then. If you have Juniors and Seniors that are interested in participating in State Events, please let us know on the registration form. We will contact eligible members the week after the contest.

Questions?

If you have questions about 4-H Horse Bowl or Hippology, please contact the Extension Office at 561-7450.

Register

https://reg.cce.cornell.edu/25HBHippReg5A-2_209

Last updated February 24, 2025